intifada

If you want to find the only synagogue in the Arabian Gulf, come to Bahrain — a tiny desert kingdom linked to Saudi Arabia by the 15-mile King Fahd Causeway. But don’t expect to find kosher restaurants, yeshivas or Yiddishkeit in this land of mosques and minarets; just 36 of Bahrain’s 700,000 or so inhabitants… More ▸

Dismay over the American Jewish leadership’s perceived reluctance to press the Bush administration to work toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is behind a series of recent meetings aimed at pressing the case forward. Jewish organizational officials who have participated in the meetings said JTA’s characterization of their aim in a story earlier this… More ▸

As one of the Arab world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries, Jordan is in a tough spot. It shares borders with Iraq, an anarchic state that has become a battlefield for terrorists and Islamic extremists; Syria, an illicit arms trafficker and close ally of Iran; and Israel, the regional pariah whose Palestinian problem is an… More ▸

Near the Shariah Islamic law department at the University of Jordan, there is a blue Star of David spray-painted on a concrete path between the pine trees. The crudely drawn image is there so that students at the university, Jordan’s largest and most prestigious, can trample the symbol of the Jewish state. Just across the… More ▸

Ezra Billinkoff has an easy way about him, with his cropped red hair, funky glasses, wide grin and a T-shirt that boasts, “Everyone loves a Jewish Quaker.” But the 21-year-old president of Hillel: The Foundation for Campus Jewish Life at the University of Pennsylvania becomes serious when asked about his impending return to campus. “We… More ▸

When the first rocket hit Haifa, David was sitting at his desk studying. Four days later, the medical student in the American program at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology was back home in Baltimore. The university canceled final exams after the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted in mid-July — and David, who asked that his… More ▸

Jewish organizations that work on American college campuses are preparing student leaders for what they expect will be a barrage of anti-Israel sentiment this fall. “It’s going to be very challenging, not like the past four years,” says Jonathan Kessler, leadership development director at American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the main pro-Israel lobby in the… More ▸

Lauren Allouche is trying not to think about it. “I’ve been preparing to move to Israel for several years,” the 19-year-old student said as she settled into the special charter flight from Paris. “Nothing, not the rockets from the Hezbollah, nothing, would force me to give up this dream.” Dafne Partouche agreed. “I’m not afraid… More ▸

Just more than two weeks into the war in Lebanon, there is a growing consensus that one of the chief casualties will be Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan for a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. Pundits on the right and left argue that the war in Lebanon and fighting with the Palestinians in… More ▸

With the fighting along Israel’s northern border showing no sign of letting up, Israel’s most popular summer tourist region has been turned into a battle zone. Tanks line roads normally filled with tour buses loaded with schoolchildren, Christian pilgrims and Orthodox Jews. Instead of the sounds of kids splashing in swimming pools and canyons, there… More ▸